ely
been made with the company, one of them being with the Western
Railroad Association, whose headquarters are at Chicago, which
includes the principal western roads. Through this the company
receives its royalty on several hundred locomotives.

IN SUMMARY

It can be stated that Hudson's modification of the Bissell truck is of
unquestioned importance, for without the introduction of the equalizer
it is doubtful if the 2-wheel pony truck would have been a complete
success on American railroads. Bissell's 4-wheel truck was extensively
employed, but it did not enjoy the universal popularity of the 2-wheel
truck, and in the 1880's was eclipsed by other forms of 4-wheel safety
trucks. The Hudson-Bissell pony truck, however, survived in its basic
form to recent times, when, in the late 1940's and early 1950's, the
last steam locomotives were constructed in this country.

1. Three-point suspension in a 4-2-0 was easily gained--the center
plate of the truck and the two bearings of the driving wheel axle.
On a 4-4-0 the center plate served as one point, while the fulcrum
of each equalizing lever served as the other two points, thus
providing the desirable and highly stable 3-point suspension.

2. _American Railroad Journal_, 1853, vol. 9, p. 427.

3. Connecting both truck axles with an equalizing lever so that they
acted in sympathy with each other also did much to prevent
derailments on rough trackage.

4. Bissell states in the patent specification that inclined planes
had been previously applied to railroad car trucks. His claim
rested on the application of this device to locomotive trucks.

5. From a sworn statement of G. M. Milligan dated July 2, 1857. This
along with letters, petitions, receipts, and other such material
quoted in this discussion are from the Patent Office papers housed
in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. (hereafter referred to
as Patent Office papers).

6. The _Lebanon_ was a 4-4-0, used in freight service, that had been
built by the New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Company in December
1855.

7. Letter dated July 2, 1857, from S. L. Moore (Patent Office papers).

8. Statement cited in footnote 5.

9. Letter dated July 11, 1857, Charles Mason to Levi Bissell (Patent
Office papers).

10. _American Railway Review_, February 9, 1860, vol. 2, p. 71.